This bird showed up this afternoon on our feeder. NE Florida (Jacksonville area). We cannot find anything exactly like this bird in our books. It has a conical beak like a grossbeak. I could not get a picture including the tail as she flew off when I tried to work around to another side.

You are right - the other birds are scarce when he visits!

This hawk seems to have taken up residence on our street. He has visited our yard several times recently and I snapped this photo while he was sitting on a tomato stake. We think he is either a marsh hawk or juvenile redtail. Whatever he is, he is a sight to behold! Photo taken through a window overlooking the garden.

Canon T7i with an old 100/300 non-IS Canon zoom @300. handheld, full auto mode.

We live in northeast Florida - hope that helps.

This fellow stopped by this afternoon and posed nicely for me. My wife and I went out into the yard and he just watched us. I have my Canon T71 mounted with an old Canon 100-300 zoom and took several snaps on full auto. He eventually flew up into a nearby tree (backlit against a fairly bright sky) and I was able to snap a few more. These are uncropped, handheld.

Cany anyone identify the type of hawk??

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It is still in place several hours later - it survived a rain shower, too! The thing is, they tear the web down over night and then rebuild it the next day.

This morning my wife called me out to the back yard. A tiny spider had created a huge web in our swing that was backlit by the morning sun. I grabbed my old Rebel XSi that happened to have a 55-250 zoom attached and took a few quick snapshots before the light changed. I apologize for the quality of the photos but the subject is worth viewing. The first photo shows the entire web and context while the second shows the spider - he is the tiny black dot in the upper right side. The last is a closeup of the spider. How such a tiny creature can produce this masterpiece of design is beyond me.

My with (a retired English teacher) found this poem that sums it up beautifully:

A Noiseless Patient Spider

A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

freom Leavesof Grass
Walt Whitman - 1819-1892

I think these words might well apply to us in the current crisis. We need to just hang in there! My best wishes to each of you.

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